Hi Dr. Marc

I picked up on it but, honestly, i thought it was a complete and utter red herring. The cost effectiveness argument is based on a positive returns ROI only. In other words, he isn't including the "costs" (or potential costs) of not having big units with a lot of conventional force
There are significant potential costs to not having big forces. Agreed. I am not interested in having a military that cannot operate large units.

That said, using big units where smaller ones work with greater efficiency and effectiveness is a poor tactical choice.

It is a poor strategic choice if you cannot afford to deploy large units in order to use them inefficiently for years on end. This too is a significant cost - a threat actually - to our overall military capabilities

We can have big units and use them where/when big units work best and select more appropriate tools or degrees of force for other tasks, husbanding our resources for larger problems when they come along.